Jamestown Va

The Church of England has agreed to allow researchers using radar to look beneath two churches for remains that could determine whether a skeleton found at the Jamestown settlement in Virginia is that of one of the colony's founders, scientists said Monday. Scientists who excavated the site of a 400-year-old fort at Jamestown want to know if the skeleton discovered in 2003 is that of Bartholomew Gosnold, captain of one of the three ships that carried settlers from England.

The exhibition "Jamestown at 400: Natives and Newcomers in Early Virginia," scheduled to open Saturday at the Huntington Library, Art Collections and Botanical Gardens, has been postponed for two weeks because staff and resources were stretched too thin by a related exhibit. The problem, Huntington spokeswoman Susan Turner-Lowe said Tuesday, was that both shows highlight the same period of history and therefore demanded the services of the same library staff, curators and conservators.

The exhibition "Jamestown at 400: Natives and Newcomers in Early Virginia," scheduled to open Saturday at the Huntington Library, Art Collections and Botanical Gardens, has been postponed for two weeks because staff and resources were stretched too thin by a related exhibit. The problem, Huntington spokeswoman Susan Turner-Lowe said Tuesday, was that both shows highlight the same period of history and therefore demanded the services of the same library staff, curators and conservators.

The Church of England has agreed to allow researchers using radar to look beneath two churches for remains that could determine whether a skeleton found at the Jamestown settlement in Virginia is that of one of the colony's founders, scientists said Monday. Scientists who excavated the site of a 400-year-old fort at Jamestown want to know if the skeleton discovered in 2003 is that of Bartholomew Gosnold, captain of one of the three ships that carried settlers from England.

Condemned murderer and rapist Michael Marnell Smith, 40, who spent more than eight years on Death Row, was executed in the electric chair at the Virginia State Penitentiary in Richmond less than an hour after losing a last-minute appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court. He had been convicted of raping, strangling, drowning and stabbing a divorced mother of two who was attacked on a riverside stroll near Jamestown, Va., in 1977.

Seven years after archeologists discovered evidence of the fort built when Jamestown, Va., was founded in 1607, they finally know how big the triangle-shaped log enclosure was. Based on the finding in 1996 of the fort's east corner and on historical documents, archeologists had been searching for the outlines of a fort that covered 1.75 acres, said William Kelso of the Assn. for the Preservation of Virginia Antiquities.

Archeologists have found a large cache of early 17th century armor deep in a well in historic Jamestown, Va., a hint as to the military readiness of the New World's first permanent English settlement. The pieces, found about 10 feet below the surface, include body armor and possibly breast plates, back plates and helmets. "Most archeologists will go their whole lives and not find a single piece of armor," archeologist Eric Deetz said as each new piece emerged from the narrow, brick-lined shaft.

With Prince Philip and Virginia Gov. Charles S. Robb looking on, the sailing ship Godspeed set off from London today in a re-enactment of the voyage that carried English settlers to America 378 years ago. The crew of 14 Virginians unfurled two of the 68-foot ship's topsails, and the Godspeed glided down the Thames on the start of a planned 6,000-mile journey expected to take 10 weeks.

In Mexico, the story of the country's black population has been largely ignored in favor of an ideology that declares that all Mexicans are "mixed race." But it's the mixture of indigenous and European heritage that most Mexicans embrace; the African legacy is overlooked.

Merv Griffin's colt, Cobalt Blue, was withdrawn from the Kentucky Derby on Tuesday, leaving trainer Doug O'Neill with two starters. Cobalt Blue's seventh-place finish in the Illinois Derby and less-than stellar workouts led Griffin to decide to skip the Derby. "I talked to Merv and he thought it was in the best interest of the horse not to tax him one-and-a-quarter miles," O'Neill said at Churchill Downs. "We're going to slow it down, go back to California and look for a race."

The vote was three days past and the Democrats' battle lost, but President Clinton and a senior Republican kept up the argument Saturday over Clinton's defeated economic stimulus program--with the President accusing the Senate's GOP minority of playing "parliamentary games with our people's lives." House Minority Leader Robert H. Michel (R-Ill.

The Movie: "Pocahontas." The Setup: Walt Disney Pictures' animated retelling of the encounter between Native American Pocahontas and British soldier John Smith in early 17th-Century Virginia. Her Look: No problem that the showstopping star, a hormonally blessed physical specimen if there ever was one, gets only one ensemble for her entire forest adventure. (That allotment is typical of most Disney animated characters.